The present disclosure relates to online advertising techniques and, more particularly, relates to segment-based floors for use in online ad auctioning techniques.
A significant quantity of content published on the Internet is supported by advertisements (“ads”). Publishers of Internet-based content often make use of a robust infrastructure of Advertising Networks and/or exchanges that handles the selection, placement, and insertion of ads in web pages. These Advertising Networks and/or exchanges generally select from a set of available ads, based on various factors such as geographic location, subject matter, and the like, in an effort to present ads that are most likely to be maximize revenue in a given context. Advertisers pay the Advertising Networks and/or exchanges for ad exposures based on, among other factors, expected or actual performance of the ad determined, for example, by counting the number of times users click on the ad. Accordingly, revenue can be increased by placing ads to maximize response and effectiveness.
As the online advertising industry continues to grow, the amount of control that publishers (entities who have an inventory of advertising space to sell) want with respect to selling this ad space inventory also grows. As a result, there is an increasing desire among publishers to carve out specific inventory buckets for their ad space inventory. On the advertiser side, advertisers are now increasingly particular about how much they will pay to place their ads on Web pages.
Various mechanisms for measuring performance and effectiveness of advertisements are available. One well-known measurement of ad performance is effective cost per mille (e-CPM), which indicates a cost (or price) of showing an ad one thousand times. e-CPM is therefore a measurement of revenue that a publisher can expect to receive from an Advertising Network based on the number of impressions, or page views, of the content. e-CPM is often determined on an estimated basis. Revenue for an Internet publisher is maximized when an advertisement having high e-CPM is shown. Higher e-CPM means that an Advertising Network is willing to pay more because of an expectation that an ad will be more effective.
It would be desirable to provide publishers with greater level of control in determining which ads are served to them for display based on a variety of demographic and other categories. Overall this would also be desirable for the advertisers and entities providing services to advertisers. Advertisers would like to be able to target a specific audience and have the flexibility of paying more or less for a given ad segment depending on who will see the ad.